Making Room For The Important Stuff

When my mom died back in 1995, I was knocked down hard. As I tried to get back up, I found I had very little in my life that I could call on and look to for support. And here’s the kicker: I was not at all alone in my life. Quite the contrary, my life was very full of people, work, yuppie-styled possessions, social demands, and I woke up most mornings ready to work my 12 + hour day. But with mom gone, all that felt different.

With mom gone, it was painfully clear that I had made a lot of truly unimportant things important in my life.

Something had to change.

So, in true Taurus fashion, I declared that I was only going to let the “important” stuff in my life matter to me. “No more of the unimportant crap and distractions!” I’d angrily exclaim. I made that declaration over and over again and I failed.

I failed because my angry declarations weren’t enough. I had to figure out what was important to me. And frankly, that scared me to death. I knew that figuring out what was important to me would mean letting go of the unimportant…and it was clear that that was most of what filled my life.

But you know what? I found that the loneliest feeling in the world is the feeling you get when you are surrounded by all that’s in your life and you feel like you don’t belong; like you are not “at home.”

We all have the right to feel “at home” in our own lives. To do that, we have to be living in alignment with what’s most important to us.

What is most important in your life?

Is the way you are putting your life together lined up with that?

For the sake of example, let’s say peace of mind is one of the most important things in your life. Do the people in your life, your work, your possessions and your activities regularly add to your peace of mind? Or do they distract you from it, maybe even diminish your peace of mind?

If you need peace of mind to feel “at home” in your life, you owe it to yourself to honor that most important thing and make room for it. Even if that means that you have to let go of something else…Same with anything that makes the list of what’s most important to you.

You have this one life and it’s yours to build. Build one where you feel “at home” and put the most important things smack-dab in the middle of the room with a bright light shining on them!

Oh, and do it now. Don’t do what I did and wait until something tragic happens to wake up and start living your life aligned with yourself.